My First Week of Freelance Writing

Just over a week into going full force head first into freelance writing and I have learned quite a bit and even got scammed for the first time. This time they got me but luckily I caught on quickly and didn’t waste too much time on them. I decided that whenever I get scammed or think I am being scammed I am going to post about it here so that other wannabe freelancers know what to keep an eye out for and don’t fall for it.

This scam was on guru. I had applied for several jobs on their job board and within a few hours, I received a notification that one of my proposals had been accepted and I was hired. I was excited! I talked to this person, Regine Broo on Skype, and was sent directions for the first article I was to write. It was a little confusing and took me a little while to figure out exactly what they were wanting but I got it finished and uploaded the final product on guru. I was nervous since it was a little confusing and of course my anxiety was going up worrying that I hadn’t done it right. The next day I got a message from Regine with instructions for a new article. I asked if she (or he? Not sure) received the file I sent to her and she said yes and said that she loved my work. I logged on to Guru and noticed that the job had been deleted. I promptly asked her how I was going to be paid since the job had been deleted. She said that I can invoice them once a week and they would pay quickly. I then asked what my pay was going to be because I wanted to verify since the job was deleted. She quoted me a low ball price and I told her that was way too little and not worth my time. She asked what I would expect to be paid, I gave her a price and she quickly agreed to it saying that she was fine with paying me more because she liked my work. From what she had told me, this would be an ongoing job and I would get as many articles to write a day as I wanted.

I wrote the second article and sent it to her immediately. I didn’t hear back from her until Saturday afternoon when this conversation took place:

Despite my telling her that I was not available for work that day, she sent the job order anyway and I didn't respond, I just logged off. I hadn’t heard from her since this last conversation so I went in to Skype and noticed that it says messaging disabled until a contact is requested. So apparently she deleted me from her contacts. I don’t know if it was because she was angry because I was not able to drop everything I was doing on a Saturday afternoon or because he knew she wasn’t going to pay me! I guess once I saw that the job on guru was deleted I should not have written the second article but I will take it as a learning lesson.

Now, as for what else I have been doing. I applied and was approved for PeoplePerHour. It’s a job board that you have to apply for and be approved. You can offer services (setting a price details of work you will be doing) and you can bid on jobs. So far I have 3 services or “hourlies” posted and going to see how pph plays out.

As for job boards, I have been bidding on jobs from Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru and I have applied for some other writing jobs but not going to post about those until I know the results of my application.

Just today, I began searching for and finding websites in my niche that pay freelance writers for articles and/or blog posts. The first thing I’ve noticed is that many websites pay you with a back link not in actual cash. Which, of course, back links are great but right now I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time writing articles for back links. I will do a few here and there but mama needs to make some money! Once my list of websites grows, I will begin pitching. Pitching is already giving me some anxiety but I know I have to do it.

How’s everyone else doing? Had any luck? I have a board on pinterest especially for freelance writing and virtual assisting. Feel free to follow it here!

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